Scottish Executive

Agriculture

Alex Johnstone (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is on the use of fishmeal in ruminant feeds.

Ross Finnie: As required by the Scotland Act, the Executive will observe its EU obligations and intends to introduce shortly legislation that will ban the use of fishmeal in ruminant feeds as of 1 August this year. However, the Executive will continue to press for the return of fishmeal in ruminant rations as soon as the potential for cross-contamination to occur can be discounted by a suitable testing protocol, which the EU is committed to pursuing.

Energy

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has been involved in organising the seminar on fuel cells to be held in Edinburgh on 29 June 2001, if so, in what way, and why Hydro-Gen Industries was not invited to attend.

Rhona Brankin: The seminar was organised by the Scottish Fuel Cell Consortium, although the Executive assisted the organisers by offering its conference facilities for the event, and by the Scottish Energy Efficiency Office posting details of the seminar on its website (www.energy-efficiency.org). Unfortunately the seminar was cancelled, but details of the rescheduled event are on the website and Hydro-Gen are welcome to attend.

Energy

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether any of its officials have had discussions with Hydro-Gen Industries on developing fuel cell technology.

Rhona Brankin: Representatives from the company met with officials from the Scottish Executive and Scottish Enterprise on 18 December 2000 to discuss the company’s involvement in fuel cell technology.

Energy

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive which ministers have been made aware of the work being done by Hydro-Gen Industries on fuel cell technology, what communication each minister has received on this issue and what action has been taken as a result of any such communications.

Rhona Brankin: Mr Gallie will be aware that he wrote to the previous minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning on 27 September 2000 concerning Hydro-Gen Industries’ involvement in fuel cell technology. Following this, officials from the Scottish Executive and Scottish Enterprise met representatives from the company on 18 December 2000. At this meeting several courses of action available to Hydro-Gen Industries were outlined. It is for the company to take forward these issues.

Enterprise

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what powers or rights of consultation it has in relation to takeovers or mergers of companies within Scotland.

Ms Wendy Alexander: Merger control is a matter reserved to the UK Government. However, the competition authorities take full account of relevant views including those of the Scottish Executive.

Fisheries

Mr Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what the value was to the Scottish economy of salmon and sea trout angling in each of the last 10 years.

Rhona Brankin: We do not hold this information centrally. I am, however, proposing to commission the necessary economic study.

General Practitioners

Mr Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding is available to support the development of rural out-of-hours GP services.

Susan Deacon: The Out of Hours Development Fund is intended to support improvements in out-of-hours services across Scotland, including rural areas. The aim of the fund is to reduce pressure on individual GPs and/or make more cost-effective use of GP time.

  In 2000-01, the fund total of £5,582,000 was allocated to health boards. In turn, health boards topped this up to a total of £6,759,253.

General Practitioners

Mr Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how much money each health board received to support the development of out-of-hours GP services in (a) 1998-99, (b) 1999-2000 and (c) 2000-01.

Susan Deacon: Listed in the table is the amount of money allocated to the health boards for the years requested.

  


Health Board 
  

1998-99 
  

1999-2000 
  

2000-01 
  



£ 
  

£ 
  

£ 
  



Argyll and Clyde 
  

464,000 
  

476,000 
  

488,000 
  



Ayr and Arran 
  

391,000 
  

401,000 
  

411,000 
  



Borders 
  

116,000 
  

119,000 
  

122,000 
  



Dumfries and Galloway 
  

177,000 
  

182,000 
  

186,000 
  



Fife 
  

330,000 
  

339,000 
  

347,000 
  



Forth Valley 
  

300,000 
  

308,000 
  

315,000 
  



Grampian 
  

511,000 
  

524,000 
  

537,000 
  



Gr. Glasgow 
  

947,000 
  

972,000 
  

996,000 
  



Highland 
  

272,000 
  

279,000 
  

286,000 
  



Lanarkshire 
  

503,000 
  

516,000 
  

529,000 
  



Lothian 
  

791,000 
  

812,000 
  

832,000 
  



Orkney 
  

37,000 
  

38,000 
  

39,000 
  



Shetland 
  

27,000 
  

28,000 
  

28,000 
  



Tayside 
  

396,000 
  

406,000 
  

416,000 
  



Western Isles 
  

48,000 
  

49,000 
  

50,000 
  



Totals 
  

5,310,000 
  

5,449,000 
  

5,582,000

General Practitioners

Mr Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what support it gave to the development of the G-Docs scheme for out-of-hours GP services in Grampian in (a) 1998-99, (b) 1999-2000 and (c) 2000-01.

Susan Deacon: Grampian Health Board were allocated the following amounts from the Out Of Hours Development Fund over the past three years. It is for the board and the Trust to decide how to allocate these funds to out-of-hours providers locally.

  


1998-99 
  

511,000 
  



1999-2000 
  

524,000 
  



2000-01 
  

537,000

Local Government

Mr Keith Harding (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total costs were of the publication, including the design, photocopying, printing, internet connection of text, distribution and launch, of Scottish Local Government’s Self-Review of its Political Management Structures: Report of the Leadership Advisory Panel .

Mr Keith Harding (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give a detailed breakdown of the costs involved in establishing and maintaining its Leadership Advisory Panel in each of the past two years, including any staff, accommodation, travel and administrative costs.

Peter Peacock: The Leadership Advisory Panel has been a very successful exercise for modest outlay. The costs of publication of the LAP report can be broken down as follows:

  

 

£ 
  



Design 
  

3,760 
  



Printing 
  

12,641 
  



Web conversion 
  

724 
  



Postage 
  

926* 
  



Total 
  

18,051 
  



  *Estimated.

  The report was simply published rather than launched so no other significant costs were incurred at the time of publication. Copies were sent to all councillors in Scotland to help encourage debate and discussion about the different models adopted given the evolutionary nature of the process. In addition, its availability on the web avoids the need for subsequent print runs.

  The cost of establishing and maintaining LAP from August 1999 until April 2001 can be broken down as follows.

  

 

1999-2000 
  

2000-01 
  

2001-02 
  



£ 
  

£ 
  

£ 
  



Travel and subsistence: visits to councils and panel meetings 
  

4,344 
  

7,165 
  

1,434 
  



Costs of Panel meetings 
  

247 
  

2,919 
  

1,430 
  



Publications 
  

15 
  

0 
  

357 
  



Total 
  

4,606 
  

10,084 
  

3,221 
  



  Secretariat support was provided by the Scottish Executive. The staff involved in supporting the panel did so as part of a wider range of duties so it is not possible to calculate their costs concerned with LAP business alone.

Non-Domestic Rates

Mr Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what forms of non-domestic rate relief are available to small rural businesses.

Angus MacKay: All businesses occupying properties with a rateable value of £10,000 or less benefit from a 2p reduction in the poundage this year. In addition, the rural rate relief scheme provides 50% mandatory relief for any sole general store (selling food and household goods) and/or post office in settlements of under 3,000 population in a designated rural area and with a rateable value of less than £6,000. Local authorities have discretionary powers to top this up to 100%. Local authorities also have discretion to grant up to 100% rate relief for any other business in such settlements that they consider important to the community. This discretionary element is for subjects with a maximum rateable value of £12,000.

  For businesses suffering financial hardship, local authorities can grant up to 100% relief from rates. For the period 1 April to 31 December 2001, for businesses affected by the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, 95% of the cost of this relief is funded by the Scottish Executive for properties with a rateable value of £12,000 or less in rural areas (£50,000 in Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders). For other businesses, the Scottish Executive pays 75% of the cost.

Public Transport

Mr Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how much commercial bus operators have received in subsidies from the Scottish Executive since July 1999.

Sarah Boyack: The Executive, under the Bus Fuel Duty Rebate Scheme (BFDR), paid grant to Scottish bus operators amounting to £94.5 million between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2001 to reimburse them for excise duty paid on fuel consumed in operating local registered services.

Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

Holyrood Project

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Presiding Officer whether any design changes have been made to the windows in the MSP office block of the new Parliament building at Holyrood and, if so, what the consequential additional costs and time delays in construction were.

Sir David Steel: Design changes were made to the MSP block windows as a consequence of the Value Engineering exercise carried out in late 1999. The Convener of the Holyrood Progress Group has confirmed that there were no consequential time delays and the changes have resulted in cost savings of around £100,000.